Hillary Clinton's Downfall?

By Stanford Matthews Blog @ MoreWhat.com Maybe a little trip through the news and commentary offered around the net will provide some illumination on the likely fate of Hillary Rodham Clinton and her continued pursuit of political power. The first offering is from NJ Voices, Murray Sabrin at NJ.com. Hillary Clinton's downfall? Posted by Murray Sabrin November 23, 2007 10:13AM Senator Hillary Clinton has been leading in the national polls as well as in Iowa and in New Hampshire against her two main rivals, Senator Obama and former senator John Edwards, for the Democrat presidential nomination. However, in the latest ABC/ Washington Post poll Obama leads in Iowa with 30%, Clinton follows with 26% and Edwards comes in at 22%. In other words, Clinton could finish third in Iowa. And, if an Obama win in Iowa turns into the Big Mo going into the New Hampshire primary a week later, where Clinton now has a huge lead over Obama, 36% to 22%, the "invincibility" of a Clinton presidential nomination, let alone a Clinton nomination, will be in serious jeopardy. There are many comparisons to relative positions of candidates in the polls between the current campaign and past events. While all the pundits, polling, predictions and forecasts are of limited usefulness, Robert Novak who broke the story that the Clinton campaign has campaign ending dirt on Obama indicated on Hannity and Colmes his belief that the Clinton campaign is worried about their chances with Obama coming up in the polls and Iowa not looking like the done deal they had expected. Similarly, Sabrin above suggests Clinton is essentially running two campaigns with one about the caucus/primary elections and the other about the general. That fits with earlier assessments that Clinton's lead in the national polls and supporters touting her as the default nominee had her campaigning like a nominee by her carefully scripted, choreographed appearances right through the softball CNN debate and planted questions in Iowa. Even with all the help from the media, Clinton still managed to stumble on a simple debate question about supplying illegals with driver's licenses and lying about something as simple as tipping a waitress. But one must still keep in mind the notions surrounding stories earlier in the year suggesting the possible outcomes of the election with the various Dem candidates facing off against the GOP field. Some said while the GOP makes a lot of noise about Hillary Rodham Clinton they truly prefer to face her in the general. The reason given was with her history, mounting an opposition campaign would be much more effective. With Obama and Edwards having less history and less to attack the outcome favored the GOP with HRC as the Dems nominee. Since the party elite of the Democrats anointed Senator John Kerry even though Senator Edwards was showing real strength at the time, perhaps the Dems will play into the GOP strategy by anointing HRC as their 2008 choice and hand the Republicans another Presidential victory like the last time. Stay tuned, more news and commentary in the next post.